Sixty degrees at
8:30 a.m…..no clouds visible…slight wind.
Forecast says it only gets better from this point on. 🌞
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Couple from Toronto pulled into the site
next to ours last night. Talked to them
this morning and I found a kindred tie-dyed spirit in Ripley, their 5 year old
daughter. I happened to be wearing a
pair of tie-dyed shorts. She told me that she really liked my shorts and that
she didn’t have shorts but she did have a dress that looked sort of like
them. Her mom explained that anything
that smacks of rainbow is her favorite these days. Well, color me happy that someone besides me likes
my shorts!
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Kim received a portable Stanley charge all
thing (USB ports, jumper cables, air compressor, etc.) for Christmas. Kim called it a Swiss Army knife for cars…we
brought it with us. We’ve been using it to keep our various forms of technology
charged. Woman across the way had a dead battery…he toted his charger over
there and gave her car a jump. As he was
walking back into our camp, we hear click…click…click…click coming from the site next door. Another dead battery. Kim walks with his charger and says “Your battery dead, too. Just pop your hood and we’ll put the charger
on it…” Two dead batteries charged
up within 3 minutes…there were two happy campers each able to continue on their
merry way and Kim was pleased with the performance of his charger. Win-win situation…
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When I see a biker wearing colors (club patch), I’m curious as to what
the group is about. We rode the bikes to
Coolidge today and four bikers wearing the Sons of Odin MC colors roared past
us. They turned into the Galloping Goose,
a restaurant located at the edge of town…having lunch I thought. I googled Sons of Odin when we got to
Walgreens…couldn’t find anything concrete except a Facebook page and that didn't offer much either. They have a 3 part patch (colors) that might or might
not peg them as an outlaw group. They
have a mission statement that seems to support it, though.
We had to pass the Galloping Goose on our
way back to Picacho…the parking lot was visible traveling that direction
through town. There were 100+ motorcycles
lined up and a whole lot of leather clad people congregating at the doorway of
the restaurant. I had wrongly assumed those 4 bikers were going for lunch…this
appeared to be much bigger than that. As
we rode past I imagined what would happen if Kim and I happened to stop…the Del
Fuegos scene from Wild Hogs played out in my head, without the comedy. 😐
I did some research when I got back to the
camp…they’re not listed as a known outlaw group but they do call themselves a ‘motorcycle
club’. After following one thread to
another to another, I found out the Sons of Odin MC and the Loose Cannons MC
were hosting an event today at the Galloping Goose…a Ragnarok Out party. In Norse, Ragnarok means ‘the final battle of
the gods’. Flyers indicated that this would
be an epic old school party complete with raffles, door prizes, ancient games
and a bike rodeo. There would also be a
best beard and Viking costume contest.
Oh, and it was billed as ‘family friendly’. The flyer didn’t indicate what would be done
with the money raised…whether it’d be given to a charity or to their group’s
bank account. The party was going from “noon
till the bell tolls” so perhaps they’re still at it. And maybe if we’d stopped it wouldn’t have
been a scene out of Wild Hogs after all...but then again why chance it.😏
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Brought the drone with us; I’ve been wanting
to get some pictures of the road construction from the air. Haven’t taken the time to use it yet but today the conditions were good for quick test. Kim got the okay from Ryan, the owner, to fly it around the park. Ryan would actually love to have some aerial
footage of the campground. Got the
batteries charged then realized the controller needed charging too. That was going to take some time so we took
off for a ride to Coolidge. A bit windier
when we got back but Kim still put the drone up in the air…he had to
familiarize himself with it again.
Practice pictures turned out good…charged batteries again for the next
flight up.
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It was early afternoon when Kim was done
practicing with the drone. Didn’t really
feel like putting my jeans back on for another ride so we jumped in the truck to
do some exploring out at Saguaro National Park.
When I was doing my research on crested saguaros last night, I came
across a document from the nps.org site which had a map with directions on how
to find 8 of the 30 crested saguaros within the west park boundaries. With the map on my phone, we set off on a
treasure hunt.
That was easier said than done because on
top of the fact that I’m directionally challenged what was shown on the map and
written as directions weren’t lining up. There were pictures but those weren’t
very useful until it came time to verify what we found. Finding a deformed saguaro isn’t as easy as
it might sound even with instructions.
It all depended on the angle from which we were seeing it…that’s when
the pictures came in handy. Kim exhibited great patience with my struggle to
figure out the map/direction issues…we retraced our route several times before
we called it quits at dusk. We managed
to find 4 of the 8 listed. If we have
time before we return to Michigan we’ll head out to do more searching.
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Random Encounter of the Day:
Pulling into a gas station and 3 young kids
are setting up by the entrance with their van nearby and a sign asking for
help. One of them yells to us about nice
looking bikes. We’re getting gas and
another one approaches us.
Kid: Hey,
I just wanted to come over to check out your bikes and let you know that I
really like them. (Gives the bikes an appraising look) Oh, I see they’re Harleys…that’s nice for
you. My dad used to ride a Harley…really
nice bikes you got there. Hey, ah, I was
wondering if you could help us…me and my buddies need some gas for our van…is
there any way you could help us?
Kim, thinking as he’s pumping
gas into his bike: Ah, sure…bring your
gas can over here.
Kid:
Yeah, these are really nice bikes.
Ah, hey, it looks like we just got some gas…yeah, it looks like our gas
can is full. But, ah, could you maybe
help us out anyway? Could you just help us a little? But, if you can’t that’s okay…yeah, that’s
totally okay, I understand.
Kim: Your gas can is full?
Kid, pointing in the general direction of the
van: Yeah, it looks like it just got filled up.
Kim: Well, I’d be happy to help by filling up your
gas can, but we don’t carry cash…
Kid: No,
no, I understand, not a problem…especially for you guys. Thanks anyway. I really like your bikes.
At this point he wanders on to
another customer at another pump. Sales
would not be a good career choice for this kid.
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Today’s miles: 53
Total miles: 992
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